-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- `` These are the explosive devices , they are all made locally , '' Captain Daoud Hassan Mahmoud explains , crouching down and pointing to the metal cylinders , perhaps just 20cm in diameter -- dozens of them are lined up next to each other .

The cylinders are packed with a deadly concoction of fertilizer , explosives and other chemicals bought from the local market .

`` I do n't want to name them so that the government does n't confiscate them from the shops , '' Mahmoud says .

Placed on the top of the cylinder thick nuts and bolts -- which will turn into lethal shards of shrapnel once detonated : Crude , but highly effective .

`` This one would blow up a jeep or a pick-up , '' he says , pointing to two of the cylinders which a rebel is roughly taping together , in the final stages of preparation . `` For a tank or an armored vehicle we use six or eight . ''

Outgunned by Assad 's forces , the captain 's team -- the Daoud brigade -- is resorting to Iraq-style guerilla warfare , turning to roadside bombs and , in at least one case , a suicide bombing .

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Clips said to be of the brigade 's operations are often posted to YouTube , starting off with a Quranic verse , followed by stylized graphics of the brigade 's name , and its division -- the Damascus Hawks .

Hardly audible below the music -- a jihadi chorus meant to motivate -- a voice narrates each attack .

The videos are all very similar in tone to those that came out of Iraq when al-Qaeda-allied insurgents there took on the US military . In that battlefield the IED proved to be the most effective weapons against American armor .

In Syria today it is also becoming the weapon of choice .

Mahmoud says they have received no outside help .

`` Our funding is dependent on donations , a small collection of money . And what we 're able to capture from the Syrian military . We have not received any help even from the Free Syrian Army leadership or the Syrian National Council , '' he claims .

And so , he says , they have had to improvise .

Is Syria in a civil war ?

`` We only have AK 47s , sniper rifles , machine guns , '' Mahmoud explains . `` And the regime is fighting us with tanks and rockets . We do n't have heavy weapons . We 're relying on mines and on making bombs . ''

Mahmoud says he commands 300 men . The Damascus Hawks Division is made up of around 8,000 , operating mostly in Idlib province . There is no way of confirming such claims .

The division , he says , was first made up of defectors and civilians and has gradually increased in numbers .

He says his men are moderate Islamists , who follow the military council of the Free Syrian Army , fighting for democracy .

`` As military men , we do n't want to see one in power , '' he says . `` We want a democratically elected president , we have to separate the military from the presidency .

`` We are also fighting corruption and those opportunists that are in the Idlib countryside , '' he continues , referring to people he says are capitalizing on the uprising to wreak havoc and carry out operations in the name of the opposition .

The men look relaxed as they calmly mill around among the olive groves , AK 47s slung over their shoulders . This is territory they control . They are a ragtag collection of rebel fighters but in this part of Idlib province in Syria , they boast of taking the fight to the Syrian regime .

Just back from a mission , one of the fighters explains that it failed .

`` We set up an ambush against Assad 's army using IEDs but they received intelligence about our plan and rerouted the convoy . ''

Another claims his unit was successful .

`` We destroyed an armored vehicle , '' he boasts .

This is now the Syrian battlefield . Fifteen months on , peaceful protests have morphed into more of an insurgency that threatens to become an all out war .

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Syrian rebels outgunned by Assad regime 's military might

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Fighters are turning to Iraqi insurgent style improvised bombs

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Devices made from pipes packed with fertilizer , chemicals and nuts and bolts